Codependent Dysfunctional Relationships Dynamics - Power Struggle

“It is normal for relationships in this society to deteriorate into power struggles over who is right and who is wrong. That is because we grew up in a dysfunctional society that taught that it was shameful to be wrong. We got the message that our self-worth depends on not making mistakes, on being perfect - that it caused our parents great emotional pain (or they caused us great emotional or physical pain) when we made a mistake, when we were wrong.” “This dance of Codependence is a dance of dysfunctional relationships - of relationships that do not work to meet our needs. That does not mean just romantic relationships, or family relationships, or even human relationships in general. The fact that dysfunction exists in our romantic, family, and human relationships is a symptom of the dysfunction that exists in our relationship with life - with being human. It is a symptom of the dysfunction which exists in our relationships with ourselves as human beings.” (All quotes in this color are from Codependence: The Dance of Wounded Souls by Robert Burney) “A relationship is a partnership, an alliance, not some game with winners and losers. When the interaction in a relationship becomes a power struggle about who is right and who is wrong then there are no winners.”

This is the first in a series of articlesabout the ways in which romantic relationships in our society are set up to be dysfunctional.

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Codependence: The Dance of Wounded Souls by Robert Burney is copyright 1995. Material on Joy2MeU web site (except where otherwise noted) is copyright 1996 thru 2015 by Robert Burney Po Box 98 Fallbrook CA 92088.

This series of articles was originally published online on the Inner Child/Codependency Recovery page that I used to edit for Suite101.com Directory - although bits and pieces of the articles have been part of articles and web pages published previously.

Originally published at https://joy2meu.com/codependent1.htm